Home Affairs defends its inefficiency

By Siyabonga Africa, ITWeb junior journalist

Johannesburg, 13 May 2009

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) still has a long way to go with its ambitious plans to revamp its IT systems, it says.

The department recently received an ICT service delivery award from the United Nations and at the same time was lambasted by the US for its poor administration.

DHA spokesperson Siobhan McCarthy says it will take between three and five years for the department to fully revamp its IT systems and get in stride to eliminate obsolete and archaic technologies.

The department was given the Public Service Delivery to Citizens Award at the Technology in Government in Africa award ceremony earlier this month. Yet at the same time it was slammed in a US a report titled “Country Terrorism”, which stated ongoing fraud damaged the department's reputation.

“The IT components that we were awarded for, were predominantly our ID processing systems which included our online fingerprint verification,” explains McCarthy. “We are making efforts to replace all the redundant technologies in the department because there was a time when the IT systems were left as they were and they are now archaic.

“There are a number of new technologies which we will be implementing before 2010, such as movement control systems which will help us monitor movements across our international borders.”

The DHA has also implemented new electronic passports as a part of its IT revamping initiative. McCarthy said, in a previous ITWeb article, that the new passports cost the department more than R500 million, from incorporating the technology, to training local staff and setting up new facilities.

Woes galore

Yet the DHA's new IT systems have come with additional challenges. The department's integrated business system project, “Who Am I Online”, awarded as a tender to GijimaAst for R2.5 billion, has been handed over to the auditor-general for investigation after allegations of irregularities in the tender process.

The media has also exposed the public's troubles with the new passport system.

“People must understand that our ICT upgrade is an ongoing process and it will take years for us to work out the kinks in the systems that are installed,” says McCarthy.